MORE GELT

Illustrated is a larger version of a gelt box out of the same firing as the other one I posted. This one is glazed in a subtle purple glaze made from finely milled manganese carbonate and a touch of cobalt. The terra cotta box is decorated with black and white slip which shows up well through the glaze and creating a bit of dimension to the surface. The base glaze is something I found in a ceramics book from the 1950s and it makes a great low-fire amber, purple, burgandy and steel blue however since several of the ingredients are no longer available, like colemenite and Albany slip a number of adjustments had to be made which included using gerstley borate and dark yellow ochre/ red art combined as well as altering the percentages to get the formula to work. This particular box is about the largest I make, 4" diameter as the interior takes a lot of gold to cover top and bottom and until I try my hand at making my own gold luster, the commercially available luster is not exactly cheap limiting the scale to a modest  and affordable size.

"Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls." Antoine Rivarol (1753-1801)